Buffing-machine.



F. A. THURSTON.

BUFFING MACHINE.

APPLIC 4.. 1,21 8,339.. Patented Mar. 6, 1917.

HEETS-SHEET l- 72 f A l ZZ/gvz//gg es?? SFTZ'" 3. 7L Zn/2237125071' Fl A. THURSTON.

summa MAcmNE.

APPLICATION FILED DEC. 21,1914. 1218 339, Patented'Mar. 6,1917 9 9 2'SHEETS-SH`EET 2.

$0 xl7 26 0\ --7- I FREDRICK A. friiims'roiv, on LYN, MASSACHUSETTS.

BiiFrIlvG-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 6, 1917.

Application inea December A21, 1914; 'serial' No. 878,271.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, FREDRICK A. THURS- ToN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and use-y ful Improvements in Bufiing-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a machine for buiiing articles of sheet material and is especially adapted to buff shoe counters and toe caps. Said shoe counters are made of different materials7 including leatherboard and they are hard and difficult to bring to an even beveled edge. They are first submitted to a skiving': machine which skives off the edges of the articles at an angle and then are subsequently run through a bu'ffing machine to still further reduce the edges of the articlejn thickness and to smooth off the roughnesses left by a skiving machine. A

The invention relates particularly tothe construction of the pad used in connectiony with a roll or movable feed member, where# by the counter or toe cap is held in contact with a sand paper covered buiing roll which also constitutes a feed roll.

The object of the invention is to buff the entire skived portion of the counter or toe cap at a single operation, both the ends and sides of said counter or toe cap.

The invention consists particularly in the improved pad for buffing articles of sheet material and in the combination of said pad with a rotary member, all as hereinafter set forth in the specification and particularly,

pointed out in the cla'ims.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is an end elevation of a pair of feed rolls embodying my invention, the table upon which the counters or toe caps are placed preliminary to feeding them between the rolls being shown in section.

Fig. 2 is a sectional elevation taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1 showing a counter in position between the rollsl Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of my improved pad, a portion of a counter being shown thereon in full lines and broken away, the portion of said counter broken away being shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 5 is a section taken on line 5 5 of Fig. 4, with the counter shown complete.

Fig. 6 is a plan view of a pad particularlyI adapted for a toe cap,'a portion of a toe cap being illustratedon said pad and broken away, the remaining portion o-f said toe cap being indicated by dotted lines.

Fig. 7 is a section taken on line 7 7 of Fig., 6 with the toe cap Vshown complete.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several viewsof the drawings.

VIn the drawings, 6 and 7 constitute a pair of feed rolls whichare rotated in the direction of the arrows thereon by suitable inechanism. The feed roll 6 is covered with an abrasive material, such as sand paper, 8, and constitutes not only a feed roll, but a lbufng roll aswell. Q9 isy a table upon which are placed the counters preparatory to feeding them between thefeed rolls.

The feed vroll 7 constitutes a rotary feed member embodying a holder 10 which comprises a center `piece 11 with segmental blocks 12 fast thereto. These segmental blocks are formed of wood and each has in its outerface arecess `13 adapted to receive a pad 14 of rubber. These pads haveA vulcanized 0n` their inner faces pieces of textile material 15, such as canvas, and the canvas is fastened by adhesive material to the seg'- mental wooden blocks 12, thus firmly fas-1 tening the rubber pads 14 to the segmental blocks 12.l -There is, preferably, a space 1-6 between the inner faces of th'ev pads 14 and the outer surface of the holder, each of the wooden blocks 12 forming a portion of said holder.A This space 16 extends longitudinally of thel feed member 7 and` is for a purpose hereinafter set forth. vWhen the pads are iii-.position it will be seen that they are curved on the arc of a circle concentric with the centerof the holder 10 and that said rubber padsform the periphery of the feed rendered relatively more yielding than the i' portion 29 which is formed of comparatively hard rubber. The object of this construction of the pad is toallow the thick portion 18 of a counter 19 to sink into the pad, while the thin feather edges 20 of said counter e which extend, entirely therearound on one face are held firmly against the abrasive surface 8 of the roll 6 during the bufling operation-that is, the end portions and the side portions of the counter are skived on .a

skiving machine before the counter 1s brought to the buing machine and are skived at an angle or beveled as seen in Fig. 4L, and in the machine of my invention the counter is run between the rolls 6 and 7 in order to buff the same over one entire surface, including the thick portion 18 and the skived portions 20, and it is the object of this invention to enable counters of different sizes and shapes to be buded over the entire surface by ruiming them between the rolls 6 and 7.

By `making that portion 28 which corresponds to the thickest portion of the counter of soft rubber and by making the remainder 29 of the pad of relatively hard rubber# that is, by making that portion of the pad over which the skived portion of the counter projects of hard rubber and vulcanizing the two said portions together, it will be evident that the thick portion of the counter will be forced into the pad, said pad being made yielding throughout the portion 28 to allow said thick portion of the counter to be forced thereinto, while the thin skived portions of the counter are firmly held up against the abrasive surface of the roll 6 by the relatively hard portion 29, so that while the portion 28 ofthe pad will yield to allow the thick portion of the counter to sink thereinto during the bufling operation, the beveled portions of the counter will be held firmly against the roll 6 by the portion 29 all in such a manner as to buii' the counter over the surface of one side thereof, both skived and thick portions.

Many counters are formed of material which is stiff and unyielding and which will not bend laterally thereof, and as the counters are fed between the rolls it is desirable that there should be a space between the inner surface of the pad 14rand the outer portion of the block 12 of the holder 10, so that this space allows the rubber pad to yield bodily downward, as illustrated in Fig. 2, when the counter is passing through between the rolls, thus the yielding necessary to allow the counter to pass between the rolls and be buifed without being injured need not depend entirely upon the construction of the pad with its relatively soft portion 28,but may depend partly upon the pad yielding bodily to enter to a certain extent the space 16.

Referring to Figs. 6 and 7, 21 is a pad formed of two kinds of rubber, similar Vto the pad 14, the central portion 22 being formed of soft rubber and the outer portion 23 being formed of comparatively hard rubber and these portions are vulcanized together so as to become practically integral with each other and to form a pad in which the article to be buffed, such as a toe cap 24C, which has a skived outer portion 25 and a comparatively thick central portion 26, is allowed to yield when it is being passed through between the feed rolls, so that the thick central portion 26 may be embedded in the soft rubber portion 22 while the outer skived portions 25 of the toe cap are firmly held up against the roll or against the abra sive surface 8 of the sand paper roll. and are buffcd.

The lines 27 Figs, 1L and 6 indicate approximately the line of division between Vthe soft and hard rubber portions of thc pads and it will be seen that the skived portions of the counter and toe cap extend outwardly over the hard portions 29 and 23, respec` tively, of the rubber pads 14C and 21..

The general operation of the mechanism hereinbefore described is as follows: 'lhev counters are placed upon the table 9 in a manner well known to those skilled in the art and fed in between the rolls 6 and 7. The skived portion 20 of the counter passes between the rolls 6 and 7 and is buffed by the abrasive surface S of the roll 6 and said skived portion is held firmly against the sand paper surfaced roll during the buiiing operation, while the thick portion of said counter is also firmly held against said roll, but the pad 14k yields, due to the soft portion 28 thereof, to allow said thick portion to pass through between the rolls without forcing the sand paper roll away from the feed roll 7 and from the pad 14 to such an extent as to render the bufing of the skived portion of the counter' ineffective.

Substantially the same operation and result is obtained by feeding the toe caps through and employing a pad 21. l

It will be understood that the said soft and hard rubber pads may be used eitherfor counters or toe caps by making the soft rubber portion of the proper extent and outline to allow the thick portion of the counter or toe cap to be embedded therein, as hereinbefore described. rlhe result of the combined yielding of the soft rubber portion of the pad andto a certain extent the bodily yielding downward of said pad into the space 16 is that the counter or toe cap is evenly buifed throughout its entire extent.

As shown in the drawings, the counters or toe caps are fed through between the rolls Sidewise thereof, but they may be fed lengthwise thereof, if desired, in which case the pads would be extended aroundthe roll longitudinally instead of laterally.

In general the mechanism hereinbcfore described is similar in certain respects to the mechanism shown and described in my co-pending application Serial No. 752,536, iiled March 7, 1913, but the pad differs therefrom in that it is adapted 'to allow a counter' to be fed between one pair of rolls and to buff the entire surface of the counter, whereas in the invention embodied in said co-pending application the use of two pairs of rolls is contemplated and the buffing of the opposite ends of the counter' only.A

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire by Letters Patent to secure is:

l. A rotary feed member for bufng machines haring a pad on its periphery consisting of a central portion of yielding material and an outer portion of relatively harder material surrounding said central portion.

2. A rotary feed member for buiiing machines having a pad on its periphery consisting of a central portion of soft rubber and an outer portion of hard rubber surrounding` said central portion.

3. A pad for machines for buffing articles of sheet material consisting of a central portion of yielding material and an outer portion of relatively harder material surrounding said central portion, said central portion being of such size and contour as to be entirely covered by said article While the edges of said article project onto said surrounding harder portion.

4. A pad for machines for buiing articles of sheet material consisting of a central portion of yielding material and an outer portion of relatively harder material surrounding said central portion7 said central por-` tion being of such size and contour as to be entirely covered by said article While the edges of said article project onto said surrounding harder portion, said central portion being of substantially the contour but of less area than the area of the article to be bued.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of tWo subscribing witnesses.

FREDRICK A. THURSTON.

Vitnesses:

CHARLES S. GooDING, SYDNEY E. TAF'r.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

